Sundays with Jean

I was challenged in my love for the body of Christ by the following passage in Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion. :

...[W]e are not so instructed [to call God 'Our Father'] that each one of us in common should call him his Father, but rather that all of us in common should call him our Father. From this fact we are warned how great a feeling of brotherly love ought to be among us, since by the same right of mercy and free liberality we are equally children of such a father. For if one Father is common to us all, and every good thing that can fall to our lot comes from him, there ought not to be anything separate among us that we are not prepared gladly and wholeheartedly to share with one another, as far as occasion requires.
Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, III. 20, 38

This challenges me not only in the way I look at  my brothers and sisters in Christ, but it reminds me that my treatment and love for my brothers and sisters springs from my relationship with our common Father.  When I hate my Christian siblings, what does that say about my relationship with God?  After all, we know all sin spring from the heart.  What does that, therefore, say about my heart?

So this Sabbath, as I am home ill, I am praying for my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and in my own church.  May God be honored and glorified in our love for one another.

And if you want to listen to an excellent sermon online (as I did this morning) on our freedom in Christ, check this out: I found it encouraging.